Umbrella with hologram

ABSTRACT

An umbrella includes a shaft and a canopy coupled to the shaft and including a hologram. The hologram includes a reflective hologram or a transmissive hologram. The hologram can be viewed from underneath the canopy or from above the canopy. The umbrella includes a light source for illuminating the hologram. The light source is located inside of the shaft. The shaft includes a reflector for reflecting light from the light source to illuminate the hologram. The reflector includes a reflective cone. The light source includes an incoherent light source, e.g., an LED and/or a coherent light source, e.g., a laser. The hologram includes a reflective hologram that is viewable from underneath the canopy and/or a transmissive hologram that is viewable from above or beneath the canopy. The umbrella includes a microprocessor control system form controlling the light source.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure relates to an umbrella with a hologram.

BACKGROUND

An umbrella includes a shaft that supports a canopy, e.g., forprotecting a user from rain or sunshine. The shaft may be composed of,e.g., metal or wood. The canopy is composed of a transparent,translucent, or opaque fabric, e.g., a polymer, and is supported by aplurality of spokes coupled to the shaft. The canopy can come in a widevariety of colors and can be printed with various designs.

SUMMARY

In one general aspect, an umbrella may include a shaft, a canopy coupledto the shaft, and a hologram coupled to the canopy. Implementations mayinclude one or more of the following features. The hologram may includea reflective hologram or a transmissive hologram. The hologram can beviewed from underneath the canopy or from above the canopy. The umbrellamay include a light source for illuminating the hologram. The lightsource may be located inside of the shaft. The shaft may include areflector for reflecting light from the light source to illuminate thehologram. The reflector may include a reflective cone. The light sourcemay include an incoherent light source, e.g., an LED and/or a coherentlight source, e.g., a laser. The hologram may include a reflectivehologram that is viewable from underneath the canopy and/or atransmissive hologram that is viewable from above or beneath the canopy.The umbrella may include a microprocessor control system formcontrolling the light source, such as timing or color of the lightsource.

In another aspect, an umbrella may include a shaft, a canopy coupled theshaft, a hologram coupled to the canopy, and a light source coupled tothe shaft. A reflector may be coupled to the shaft for transmittinglight from the light source to illuminate the hologram. The reflectormay be coupled to a portion of the shaft underneath the canopy or aportion of the shaft above the canopy.

In another aspect, an umbrella may include a hollow shaft, a canopycoupled the shaft, and a transmissive hologram woven into the canopy.The umbrella also may include a coherent light source inside of theshaft configured to transmit coherent light through the inside of theshaft, and a reflector coupled to a portion of the shaft beneath thecanopy to transmit the coherent light from the shaft to the hologram toilluminate the hologram.

The details of one or more implementations are set forth in theaccompanying drawings and the description below. Other features will beapparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a side view of an umbrella with a hologram.

FIG. 2 is a side view of another implementation of an umbrella with ahologram.

FIG. 3 is a side view of another implementation of an umbrella with ahologram.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring to FIG. 1, an umbrella 100 includes a handle 110 and a hollowshaft 105 that supports a canopy 120 fabricated from transparent ortranslucent material. Coupled to canopy 120 is a reflective hologram 190that can be illuminated from in front of the hologram by an incoherentlight source 140, e.g., an LED, coupled to shaft 105. Reflectivehologram 190 can be, e.g., any hologram known in the art that isviewable under incoherent light, such as white light. As shown in FIG.1, hologram 190 is attached to an underside surface 125 of canopy 120,e.g., by an adhesive, by stitching, or by being printed on canopy 120.However, hologram 190 also can be formed in canopy 120, e.g. by beingwoven into canopy 120, or by being printed on canopy 120.

Shaft 105 is composed, e.g., of a transparent, translucent, opaque, ormetallic material. Light source 140 is located inside of shaft 105 sothat light travels along the interior of shaft 105. At a top end portion107 of shaft 105 is a transparent or translucent cylinder 160 and areflector, e.g., a reflective cone 180, that redirects the lightexternal to cylinder 160 to illuminate hologram 190. Alternatively,reflector could be a prism or a lens. Thus, from a viewpoint 195underneath canopy 120, hologram 190 will appear as a three-dimensionalobject underneath canopy 120 of umbrella 100.

A battery 130 powers a commercially available microprocessor controlsystem 135 which controls the timing and color of illumination of LEDs140, which can be, e.g., red, green, and blue. Light source 140 isturned on and off by a switch 150, which also may be linked to atraditional umbrella unfolding mechanism.

Referring to FIG. 2, another implementation of an umbrella 200 has atransmissive hologram 210 coupled to canopy 120, such that hologram 210is formed in canopy 120, e.g., by being sewn into, printed or glued oncanopy 120. Transmissive hologram 210 can be, e.g., any hologram knownin the art that can be illuminated from behind by a coherent lightsource, such as a laser. A coherent light source, e.g., laser 220 islocated inside shaft 105. A laser beam 230 from laser 220 is transmittedinside shaft 105 until it reaches reflective cone 180 (or a prism orlens) that redirects laser beam 230 external to cylinder 160 toilluminate transmissive hologram 210. In this implementation, hologram210 is visible from a viewpoint 230 above canopy 120.

Referring to FIG. 3, another implementation of umbrella 300 has areflective cone 380 and transparent cylinder 360 located on shaft 105above canopy 120, so that beam 230 from laser 220 is redirected toilluminate transmissive hologram 210 from above canopy 120. In thisimplementation the transmissive hologram 210 can be viewed from aviewpoint 330 underneath canopy 120. In an alternate implementation (notshown), a reflective hologram can be attached to an external surface ofcanopy 120 and an incoherent light can be reflected by reflective cone380 located above canopy 120 such that the reflective hologram isviewable from a viewpoint above canopy 120.

A number of implementations have been described. Nevertheless, it willbe understood that various modifications may be made. For example amirror, prism, or other reflective surface can be used as the reflectorinstead of or in addition to the reflective cone. Other incoherent orcoherent light sources such as a cold cathode, an incandescent bulb, afluorescent bulb, or a plasma light source can be used. More than onetransparent or transmissive hologram can be used on the canopy. Thelight source can be split into two or more beams, e.g., by a prism, ormore than one light source can be used. The light source can be locatedon the portion of the shaft above the canopy or on a portion of theshaft just below the canopy so that the light does not need to bereflected to illuminate the hologram. The light source can be set toturn on and off at predetermined time intervals or to change colors.These and other implementations are within the scope of the followingclaims.

1. An umbrella comprising: a shaft; a canopy coupled to the shaft; and ahologram coupled to the canopy.
 2. The umbrella of claim 1, wherein thehologram comprises a reflective hologram.
 3. The umbrella of claim 1,wherein the hologram comprises a transmissive hologram.
 4. The umbrellaof claim 1, wherein the hologram can be viewed from underneath thecanopy.
 5. The umbrella of claim 1, wherein the hologram can be viewedfrom above the canopy.
 6. The umbrella of claim 1 further comprising alight source for illuminating the hologram.
 7. The umbrella of claim 6,wherein the light source is located inside of the shaft.
 8. The umbrellaof claim 7, wherein the shaft further comprises a reflector forreflecting light from the light source to illuminate the hologram. 9.The umbrella of claim 8, wherein the reflector comprises a reflectivecone.
 10. The umbrella of claim 6, wherein the light source comprises anincoherent light source.
 11. The umbrella of claim 10, wherein theincoherent light source comprises a LED.
 12. The umbrella of claim 10,wherein the hologram comprises a reflective hologram that is viewablefrom underneath the canopy.
 13. The umbrella of claim 6, wherein thelight source comprises a coherent light source.
 14. The apparatus ofclaim 13, wherein the coherent light source comprises a laser.
 15. Theapparatus of claim 13, wherein the hologram comprises a transmissivehologram.
 16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the hologram isviewable from underneath the canopy.
 17. The apparatus of claim 15,wherein the hologram is viewable from above the canopy.
 18. Theapparatus of claim 6, further comprising a microprocessor control systemfor controlling the light source.
 19. The apparatus of claim 18, whereinthe microprocessor control system controls timing of the light source.20. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the microprocessor control systemcontrols color of the light source.
 21. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the hologram is attached to a surface of the canopy.
 22. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein the hologram is formed in the canopy. 23.An umbrella comprising: a shaft; a canopy coupled the shaft; a hologramcoupled to the canopy; a light source coupled to the shaft; and areflector coupled to the shaft for transmitting light from the lightsource to illuminate the hologram.
 24. The umbrella of claim 23, whereinthe reflector is coupled to a portion of the shaft underneath thecanopy.
 25. The umbrella of claim 23, wherein the reflector is coupledto a portion of the shaft above the canopy.
 26. An umbrella comprising:a hollow shaft; a canopy coupled the shaft; a transmissive hologramwoven into the canopy; a coherent light source inside of the shaftconfigured to transmit coherent light through the inside of the shaft; areflector coupled to a portion of the shaft beneath the canopy totransmit the coherent light from the shaft to the hologram to illuminatethe hologram.